Pairing Albums
How we used to listen to music.
In the earlier days, back when I was a kid - we used to copy full-length albums onto cassette tapes. It worked out great because cassettes were designed to accommodate an entire vinyl record album on one side A and side B of a 90-minute tape. Most albums were around 20-25 minutes on each side, which fit perfectly onto the tape.
When I started building my vinyl album collection in the late 1970's, it occurred to me that having two albums from the same artist on one cassette just made sense. Would you believe that after all of these years, I still have most of these tapes?
The idea then was to put two albums that had been released one after the other chronologically, (or at least within a few years of each other), onto one cassette tape.
Why did I do it this way?
Let's take for example - Fleetwood Mac’s first album, "Fleetwood Mac", otherwise known as the "White album" by fans. It was released in 1975, and is the first Fleetwood Mac album with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. This album had lots of hit songs on it. One of their biggest hits ever was "Rhiannon". It is an incredible song with layered harmonies, reminiscent of the Eagles. Other hits from the album were, "Over my head", "Say you love me" and of course, "Landslide".
It only made sense to put the very next album on side B. In 1977, Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" became a gigantic success with a monster song called, "Dreams", becoming the landmark song for the band. Other hits from the album include, "Don't stop", "Go your own way", "You make loving fun" and "Gold dust woman".
Having two iconic albums on one tape was considereed “our normal” back in those days. We didn't just listen to the music, we lived and learned about the music. We'd listen to those tapes on our boomboxes, in car, our Sony Walkman, and of course on our home stereo. Vinyl albums were like treasured classic books for audiophiles. You didn't just buy an album to hear one song. You listened to every song on one side one and side two, back-to-back. You sat with your friend on the end of the bed and listened to the album while one of you read the liner notes on the album cover. You were mesmerized by the pictures, the art, and the graphics. Making cassettes of these albums was a way to save the albums from being played too much and keeping them in pristine condition.
Here are a few from my collection.
Here is a list of some of the albums I remember pairing together onto cassettes:
Aerosmith - "Toys in the Attic" and "Rocks".
Boston - "Boston (1976)” and "Don't look back”.
Eagles, the - "On the Border" and "One of these Nights".
Eagles, the - "Hotel California" and "The Long Run".
Bryan Adams - "Reckless" and ""Into the Fire".
Foreigner - "Double vision" and "4".
Heart - "Dreamboat Annie" and "Little Queen".
Heart - "Magazine" and "Dog and Butterfly".
Heart - "Passionworks" and "Heart (1985)".
Def Leppard - "High 'n' Dry" and "Pyromania".
John Denver - "Greatest Hits One" and "Greatest Hits Two".
Dan Fogelberg - "Netherlands" and "Twin sons of different mothers".
Huey Lewis and the News - "Sports" and "Four".
Rickie Lee Jones - "Pirates" and "The Magazine".
Journey - "Infinity" and "Departure".
Journey - "Frontiers" and "Raised on Radio".
Kansas - "Leftoverture" and "Point of No Return".
Dokken - "Breakin' the chains" and "Tooth and nail".
Loverboy - "Get lucky" and “Keep it up”.
Chuck Mangione - "Feels so good" and "Main Squeeze".
Motley Crue - "Too fast for love" and "Shout at the Devil".
Night Ranger - "Dawn Patrol" and "Midnight Madness".
Ted Nugent - "Ted Nugent (1975)” and "Cat Scratch Fever".
Outfield, the - "Play Deep" and "Bangin".
Pat Benatar - "In the heat of the night" and "Crimes of Passion".
Pink Floyd - "Dark side of the moon" and "Wish you were here".
Jean-Luc Ponty - "Enigmatic Ocean" and "Mystical Adventures".
Ratt - "Out of the Cellar" and "Invasion of your Privacy".
Lionel Richie - "Lionel Richie (1982)" and "Can't slow down".
Sade - "Diamond Life" and "Promise".
Sammy Hagar - "Standing Hampton" and "Three Lock Box".
Scorpions, the - "Black Out" and "Love at First Sting".
Bob Seger - "Night Moves" and "Against the Wind".
Spyro Gyra - "Morning Dance" and "Catching the Sun".
Steely Dan - "Aja" and "Aja" (not a misprint).
Stevie Nicks - "Bella Donna" and ""The Wild Heart".
Styx - "Equinox" and "Crystal Ball".
Styx - "Pieces of Eight" and "Cornerstone".
Supertramp - "Crime of the Century" and "Even in the Quietest Moments".
Police, the - "Zenyatta Mondatta" and "Ghost in the Machine".
Triumph - "Just a Game" and "Progressions of Power"
Triumph - "Allied Forces" and "Never Surrender".
Van Halen - "I" and "II"
Van Halen - "Women and Children First" and "Diver Down".
Van Halen - "5150" and "OU812".
Whitesnake - "Slide it in" and "Whitesnake (1987)".
Yes - "The Yes Album" and "Fragile".
Yes - "90125" and "Big Generator”.
These are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.
Hope you enjoyed this article and it brought back some memories of some great albums.
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